About Danes Hill

Danes Hill School is widely recognised as one of the leading co-educational day preparatory schools in the country. Situated in 55 acres of landscaped ground in the village of Oxshott, Surrey, Danes Hill provides boys and girls aged 3 to 13 with a broad and balanced curriculum.

Admissions

Choosing a new and, perhaps, first school for your child can be a daunting but extremely rewarding task. The choice of the most appropriate school can seem an impossibly difficult decision to make but, in our experience, parents should trust their own judgement - you know your own children best and we are here to guide you through every step of the way.

Danes Hill Life

Danes Hill encourages boys and girls to become confident, articulate individuals by providing them with values, skills and a desire for learning ready to take on the challenges of the next stage of their education and life beyond. Their school life will be full of wonderful experiences and achievements.

Pre-Prep

The first three years of school - Mini Transition, Transition and Reception - are together called the Early Years. Bevendean is Danes Hill Pre-Prep school and here, we aim to help all children to take their first learning steps in comfort, safety and confidence.

Prep

The Main School is divided into the Lower School (Years 2 and 3), Middle School (Years 4 and 5), and Upper School (Years 6 to 8), each with its own Head, its own assemblies and traditions, and very much its own ethos. Children are encouraged to feel allegiance to their own particular section of the school, and this sectional subdivision ensures that the school never feels overwhelmingly big.

Danes Hill School accredited with the NACE Challenge Award

The National Association for More Able Children in Education (NACE) has named Danes Hill School the 417th school to be accredited with the NACE Challenge Award. The award is given in recognition of school-wide commitment to high-quality provision for more able learners, within the context of challenge for all.

Learning Support

As an inclusive school, Danes Hill ensures that every pupil is provided with opportunities to meet their individual needs, thus enabling them to achieve his or her potential.

SENCO, alongside a dedicated team of specialist teachers, aims to identify and provide assistance for those pupils who require additional support to overcome any barriers to learning.

Support is carefully tailored to the needs of the individual, with a strong emphasis on multi-sensory learning, and developing strategies and methods that can be used by the student to underpin independent learning across the curriculum.

The school operates an EAL programme to provide support for a number of children for whom English is not their first language.

Gifted & Talented

There is a strong body of evidence to show that gifted and talented children have particular learning needs that require specific strategies and intervention.

The Gifted and Talented programme, overseen by the Assistant Head (Academic), will be aimed at children who are identified as the highest achievers in school. Identification will be compiled using data both from cognitive and academic assessments over the year and from teacher nominations. It will offer, through differentiation, ‘a tailored education’ addressing the needs of our very able children and will provide support to fulfill their potential within the curriculum. The programme will give opportunities for enrichment activities out of class and through personalised learning, making the child the centre of their own learning to enable high order challenge to achieve at the upmost level.

The National Association for More Able Children in Education (NACE) has named Danes Hill School the 417th school to be accredited with the NACE Challenge Award. The award is given in recognition of school-wide commitment to high-quality provision for more able learners, within the context of challenge for all.

NACE CEO Sue Riley said: “Danes Hill School has worked hard to attain accreditation through the NACE Challenge Award. It has shown itself to be committed to developing an environment in which all learners are challenged and supported to be the best they can be.”

The award is based on the NACE Challenge Framework, which sets out criteria for high-quality provision for more able learners within a wider ethos of challenge for all. The framework is available as part of the NACE Challenge Development Programme – a suite of resources developed by NACE to help schools evaluate and improve their provision for more able learners.

Improving provision for the more able remains a priority for many schools and has been highlighted by Ofsted as a key focus. The experience and evidence gathered by Challenge Award-accredited schools also shows that effective strategies to improve provision for the more able are likely to have a positive impact on the achievement of a much wider group of learners.

To attain the Challenge Award, schools must complete a detailed self-evaluation using the NACE Challenge Framework, submit a portfolio of supporting evidence, and undertake assessment by a NACE associate. The assessment process includes examination of school data and key documents; lesson observations; and interviews with school leaders, learners, parents and governors.

CEO Sue Riley said, “The award is presented in recognition of whole-school commitment to and achievement in providing effective challenge and support for all – spanning school leadership, curriculum, teaching and learning, processes for identification and tracking, extracurricular opportunities, strong communication and partnerships, and ongoing evaluation.”

Danes Hill School will now be invited to join the NACE Leading Schools Network, a community of schools which have demonstrated a sustained and effective commitment to meeting the needs of more able learners, and an interest in sharing expertise for the wider benefit of the education community.